1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color selection process for floor, wall, and window coverings such as carpet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Customers shopping for floor, wall and window coverings almost universally experience difficulty and frustration in selecting colors that harmonize with their living environment. It has been estimated that typical customers shop an average of four to five stores, see hundreds of samples, usually under poor lighting conditions, attempt to choose appropriate options with poor to fair staff assistance, and are asked to visualize an entire floor or wall on the basis of small samples. Further, because showroom samples are a primary marketing tool, the dealer is often reluctant to allow customers to take them home freely. The average consumer has little experience with interior decorating, and the prospect of investing thousands of dollars in the wrong carpet, for example, is so daunting that thirty-three percent (33%) of those who set out to purchase carpet give up.
No known major franchise, cooperative or retailer has attempted to classify floor, window and wall coverings across vendor lines, based on color harmonies. At most, a carpet dealer might have a wall of samples, to indicate color range, or a staff member sensitive to interior decorating concerns, but no simple, easy-to-use system for helping customers make a confident color selection appropriate to their personal living space.
Further, in attempting to help the customer through the color selection process, the dealer""s marketing options are currently limited, for all practical purposes, to the samples in the showroom. Samples are costly and individual retail dealers can display only a small number of the available vendor lines. Though a carpet dealer, for example, may belong to a national cooperative offering thousands of different carpets in every color of the rainbow, there is no feasible way to access, focus or present these color options to a customer.
Computer simulation and visualization programs wherein samples of products or photographs of samples are scanned into a computer to simulate the products have been developed in an attempt to alleviate some of these problems. However, to date, known computer visualization programs have been too limited to answer any of these problems because of technical difficulties. Specifically, because carpet and fabric is three dimensional, scanning thousands of different samples, or photographs of samples, into the computer requires a paralyzing amount of memory and storage space. A second limitation of known computer simulation and visualization programs has been their inability to render color on a computer screen with sufficient accuracy to show the subtle distinctions so important in distinguishing one carpet or fabric from another.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the state of the art by providing an improved color selection process for assisting customers when shopping for floor, wall, or window coverings. The color selection process of the present invention broadly includes: (a) the creation of a digital and graphic computer database that classifies a store""s or other entity""s entire product inventory according to internally harmonious color families, and (b) a visualization experience, using this database, computer graphics and a specially designed color room to give customers a more realistic preview of product(s) being considered. These items, taken in combination, constitute a unique and extremely powerful selling and purchasing advance in the industry.